The Fine Art of Setting the Table for Meals

Whether the meal was for family or invited guests, it was imperative to properly set the table and have all the dishes organized and ready to be used in proper order to serve the meals.

This illustration from The People's Home Library, published in 1910, shows a table set for a "dinner where the first course is a fruit cocktail". Not only was making sure the plates, silverware and drinking glasses were properly placed, the task of getting to that point was to be proper as well.

"The duty of setting the table usually falls to the daughter of the house, if there is one. If not, the mother has this added responsibility if she has no helper in the home, and even then, if she wants care and neatness in this most artistic work, as the maid of all work does not have time to devote to it. There should be a certain personality in the setting of a table that belongs to some member of the family. And there are some absolutely fixed rules for the placing of the service on the table.

In the first place the linen should be spotless and white and as fine as your style of living will warrant; the simpler linens for every day use and the finer ones for special occasions. They may be all this, but if they are not ironed with great care and the corners of cloth and napkins folded perfectly even, the very foundation of table setting is a failure.

Have a soft pad or under-cloth on the table before the cloth is laid. The linen then wears better, looks richer, and there is less noise from the dishes and silver. Lay the cloth perfectly smooth and straight, being careful in doing this not to make a wrinkle. Place the knives to the right of each place with the blade turned toward the plate and the fork to the left, each one inch from the edge of the table and allowing about twenty-four inches for each guest. Place teaspoons to the left of the fork and soup spoons and oyster fork to the right of the knife. Do not place too much silver on the table at once; better to have it brought in later, as needed, by the one doing the serving. Place the butter plate back to the left of the tip of the fork, and the water glass to the right at the top of the knife.

The napkins should be folded perfectly square and placed to the left of the forks. The remaining setting of the table all rests entirely upon the ingenuity and good taste of the housewife. Just a suggestion - keep it simple rather than have too much on it. Nothing speaks more loudly for the refinement of a family than the perfectly set table."

Dishes to be used for the rest of the meal were to be neatly arranged on a side table. The maid, or in the absence of hired help, the housewife was in charge of clearing the dirty dishes after each course and serving each following course. "In the serving, when a maid is in attendance, all food should be served from the left side." If there was no maid, and the meal was served family style by the housewife, the bowls and platters of food were to be passed from right to left.

The Dow House was constructed with proper serving etiquette in mind, well before publication of The Peoples Home Library. There are two doors leading from the kitchen to the dining room. One of the doors could be closed to shut out the noise and clatter from the kitchen, the other, a swinging door with widows, was positioned near the built in china closet in the dining room. The Dows had maids, a cook and other household employees to assist in properly and efficiently running the household. From the swinging door, the maid could inconspicuously peek into the dining room to see how the meal was progressing, and easily manage carrying dishes to and from the dining room with her hands full. The cook and her meal preparation messes were kept out of sight during meals by closing the other door so Mr. and Mrs. Dow could enjoy their meals without unsightly distraction.

View from the dining room into the kitchen at the Dow House. Compare the Dow's cupboard/workstation with the photo from The People's Home Library. Below is a view of the Dow's dining room with the door to the kitchen closed, ready for table setting with dishes from the china cupboard.

It's always nice to visit the Dow House and see all of the furnishings, and a little insight as to how they lived their daily lives makes the tour a little magical as though you've traveled back in time.